Dog's Death By John Updike Essay

In a world of love poems and sonnets, John Updike breaks the norm with a poem logging the brief life and death of a family pet in “Dog’s Death”. As expected, the story is about the heartbreaking death of a family dog. John Updike writes a over a mournful, emotional accident in a straightforward and to the point manner. The angle Updike takes seems to be an angle that could be viewed as a personal experience. His writing seems to be full of regret and with lines like, “In the car to the vet’s, on my lap, she tried-/ To bite my hand and died. I stroked her warm fur” (lines 12-13), that use first person, the reader is led to believe our author is writing from personal knowledge and experience. John Updike’s writing of “Dog’s Death” is perceived as underlying long-term guilt for a heartbreaking accident.
Only a person who has experienced these events could include imagery of this nature. Line 4 tells of how he rewarded the puppy with words of affirmation “Good dog! Good dog!”. The narrator is clearly fond of the dog. The poem turns when the strange behavior is noticed of the family pet by the family is just brushed off. In lines 5 and 7, “We thought her shy malaise was a shot reaction/ As we teased her with play, blood was filling her skin”, the …show more content…
The rhyme scheme is nonexistent in this poem, but it contributes to the emotional value of piece. Not every stanza has lines that rhyme and some lines are off rhymes. Lines 14 and 16 rhyme the word tears with the word disappeared. These lines or part of the same scene and connect the beginning and the end of it. The off rhyme symbolizes the failure of the dog to keep fighting for life in this same scene. The lack of rhyme scheme seems to embody the lack of consistency of emotions (happiness, sadness, mourning, regret) displayed in this poem. Death is a very confusing time and the rhyme scheme seems methodically confused as